Last week New Leaf hosted a day of reflection on the evolving secularity in Canada. The conversation explored not only recent Canadian statistics and a dip into the history of Canada to get a vantage point on how we got to where we are, but also created space for conversation about how the church

Bridezilla: Formed from blending of the words bride and Godzilla (Japanese movie monster). Used to describe a woman whose behavior becomes outrageously bad in the course of planning for her wedding.www.urbandictionary.com/bridezilla (see definition #5) Growing up, I vividly recall being fascinated with monster movies. Classic movies such as King Kong, The Thing, Jaws and Alien captivated

About six months ago I was at a coffee shop waiting for my friend, Helen Mo, who was studying at The University of Toronto taking a PhD. in religious studies. Her focus was on the topic of the identity of the second generation Chinese Christians in Toronto. My friend’s study stems from her own journey as someone

I remember sitting in the car with my friend, a friend who identified strongly with the LGBTQ community, had since high school, and yet still faithfully attended the pentecostal church where we first met. I remember my friend wishing they could invite all their gay and queer friends to come to church and experience it as a loving community, but also expressing fear for the judgement these friends might experience in coming there.

The exodus hasn't begun, it's almost done. Here’s the problem: Christianity in North America is disintegrating. I'm not suggesting that tomorrow we'll wake up and all the churches will be gone. In fact, in an era of decline, many churches still believe their church is immune. But the data doesn't lie. As a whole, there

You ask me how I can still be a Christian when all over the news in this country and that other one to the south, we hear stories, we see pictures, we drown in evidence that to be Christian is a blank cheque to power, infidelity, abuse and deceit.

These days, when you ask a Canadian what religion they would identify themselves with, the majority of people (about 65%) will still tell you that they are part of a Christian tradition, even though these numbers have been in decline for over 40 years.

“Well, I would consider myself spiritual but not religious.” When was the last time you had a conversation with someone who said something like that? Many of us who have been part of the Canadian church for a while have probably at least thought almost the same thing at some point…I know that I have.